뻐꾸기과ppeokkugi-gwa

Họ Cu cu

Хөхөөнийхөнkhökhöönikhöŋ

General

Information is from dictionaries and other sources. Pinyin reflects Mandarin pronunciation; for some dialect names, it is no more than a polite fiction. Korean glosses are tentative. Comments and corrections welcome. Hover over Green LetteringGreen lettering at this site hides a tool tip with glosses, further explanations, etc. Hover cursor to reveal. to see additional information.

There is a rich variety of names for the cuckoos in CJV. This stems partly from a preoccupation with the cuckoo's distinctive calls in traditional culture, especially poetry.

The common Chinese name for the cuckoos, one that is understood by anyone, is 布谷bùgǔ or 布谷鸟bùgǔ-niǎo. Ornithological lists confine this name to Cuculus canorus (Common Cuckoo) and Cuculus micropterus (Short-winged or Indian Cuckoo). Another name is 郭公guōgōng. Both names are onomatopoeic.

The coucals are popularly known as 毛鸡máo-jī'feathered-fowl/chicken', at least in the south of China where they are actually found.

In the ornithological names, cuckoos are all identified by the character 鹃juān, and ornithological names on the Mainland all utilise this character in various combinations for different genera and species:

Taiwanese names are less regularised and reflect older, more traditional names, with some influence from Japanese.

Naturalists call the coucals 鸦鹃yā-juān'crow/dark cuckoo'. Taiwan uses 番鹃fān-juān'foreign cuckoo', which may be from Japanese (although in form it is a Chinese-style compound). For the Greater Coucal, however, the Taiwanese ornithological names replace 番鹃fān-juān with 鸦鹃yā-juān.

This name could not be located in ordinary reference dictionaries; the pronunciation and Cyrillic spelling are unclear..

The traditional Mongolian spelling of this word is not listed in any dictionary and is a mystery from the point of orthography. It could just possibly be read хайян, хийян or хийен, none of which make any sense. It is possibly a typographical error, but no corrected form suggests itself.